Irregular Warfare in Strategic Competition and Gray Zones: Prosecuting Authoritarian Subversion and Exploitative Use of Corruption and Criminality to Weaken Democracy
Speakers: David Luna (Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies, LLC) Date: 22 August 2024 (Time TBD) Speaker Session Summary US adversaries, including China, Russia, and Iran, aim to diminish Western influence while expanding their own in many countries. They employ various strategies, such as leveraging proxies, transnational organized crime and kleptocrats, which can undermine democracies […]
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Public Support for Self-Defence in Taiwan: The Current State of Research
Speakers: Dr. Charles K.S. Wu, Fang-Yu Chen, and Yao-Yuan Yeh (University of Southern Alabama) Date: 14 August 2024 Speaker Session Summary Chinese President Xi Jinping has indicated that an invasion of Taiwan by 2027 is a distinct possibility, if not imminent. The concern of a Chinese invasion from the international community intensified following the Russian […]
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Russia’s Cyber Power Base: From Cybercriminals to Private Contractors
Speaker: Justin Sherman (Global Cyber Strategies) Date: 7 August 2024 Speaker Session Summary Justin Sherman spoke to the SMA audience about Russia’s cyber power base—not just the state and intelligence actors, but also the private contractors and private sector companies that play an important role in Russia’s cyber power. To begin, Mr. Sherman emphasized that […]
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Global Influence Operations
Speakers: Patrick Alley (Author, Terrible Humans) with Guest Host Jack Gaines (One CA Podcast) Date: 31 July 2024 Speaker Session Summary Global Witness employs a strategy of research, exposure, and advocacy to dismantle autocratic and kleptocratic regimes, such as Charles Taylor’s regime in Liberia. Patrick Alley and guest host Jack Gaines discussed how Global Witness […]
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The Next Quantum Superpower? US-China Quantum Competition and the New Global Quantum Scramble Quantum Computing
Speaker: Brandon Williams (LLNL) Date: 30 July 2024 Speaker Session Summary The race to achieve quantum computing has significant implications for the future security landscape. Dr. Williams highlighted the current progress, challenges, and opportunities for growth in the quantum computing field. He also discussed China’s rapid progress in quantum computing and emphasized the steps the […]
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How Climate Change Impacts Security and Conflict Worldwide
Speakers: Dr. Tim Clack (University of Oxford), Lieutenant General (Ret) Richard Nugee (British Army), Ella Fleming (UK Defence Science Technology Laboratory) Date: 19 September 2024 Speaker Session Summary Climate change is projected to have deep and far-reaching effects as its pace continues to increase, amplifying states’ insecurities and vulnerabilities. These effects will manifest themselves differently […]
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Climate, Peace, and Security in Latin America and the Caribbean – A Perspective from UNDP
Speaker: Adam Forbes (United Nations Development Programme) Date: 18 July 2024 Speaker Session Summary Since 2008, the discourse on the relationship between climate change effects, conflict, and security has significantly evolved. Mr. Forbes elaborated on how this nexus impacts Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change by […]
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Shades of Grim: Scenarios for Ukraine and Global Order
Speakers: Prof. Luis Simón & Ms. Lotje Boswinkel (Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Date: 16 July 2024 Speaker Session Summary The ongoing war in Ukraine remains unresolved, and its outcome is widely debated among politicians, researchers, and military practitioners. In their recent CSDS paper “Shades […]
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The Promise & Perils of AI: What We’ve Learned from Some of the Largest Real World Deployments of Generative & Classical AI to Understand Global News
Speaker: Dr. Kalev Hannes Leetaru (GDELT Project) Date: 11 July 2024 Speaker Session Summary SMA hosted a speaker session with Dr. Kalev Hannes Leetaru (GDELT Project) as part of its SMA General Speaker Series. One of the GDELT Project’s goals is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand our world. To accomplish this monumental task, […]
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Access Denied?: Assessing Options for Projecting Airpower into a Contested East Asia
Speakers: Dr. Nicholas Anderson (George Washington University) and Dr. Daryl Press (Dartmouth College) Date: 25 June 2024 Speaker Session Summary China is striving to limit US military power projection in its home region of East Asia by enhancing its own ability to project air and missile power. To ensure that China cannot restrict US power […]
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